As the structures of semiconductor devices become smaller, improvement in vertical precision is required in addition to lateral precision in controlling the scaling of the structures during the manufacturing process of the semiconductor devices. As the complexity of the manufacturing process flow increases in order to achieve microfabrication, steps formed on the surface of the semiconductor wafer tend to become larger. Further, increasing numbers of films are stacked one over the other in order to improve the vertical density of elements.
As a result, significantly high level of wafer planarity is required in semiconductor device manufacturing. In a polishing step, which is one process step in a semiconductor manufacturing process flow, CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing) may be employed for achieving planarity. However, the influence given by the condition of the components of CMP apparatus is becoming impermissible in achieving the required level of planarity.